It’s no secret what happens during an auto show, but have you ever seen what happens before one? That’s what this week’s episode of Jalopnik Investigates is all about.
This story was originally published on December 27, 2015
I used to love auto shows. Seeing all of my favorite cars in the flesh, even being able to sit in some of them are memories I hold close to my heart. Now, as a journalist, they frighten me because every single reporter and cameraman has the same access to the same cars at the same time, creating cookie-cutter like results across the automotive journalism spectrum. It’s like a rugby scrum, but less polite.
Every automotive website during an auto show week looks pretty much the same, but we’re Jalopnik Video, and we think you deserve better than that. We’re giving you a deep dive via video to help you really get a sense of the scale of these absolutely massive events.
Perhaps the only thing more frightening about an international auto show itself are the logistics behind creating one. The numbers are hard to comprehend — there are more than one million pounds of rigging in the ceilings and another 1,000 temporary workers to install that rigging. Some 600 trucks load and unload supplies during the auto show’s setup days, and another 1,000 temporary workers assemble those supplies into the manufacturer displays which you and I crawl all over while the show is in session.
Don’t even get me started on what it takes to provide food and drinks for all those people.
Hopefully, the next time you’re at an auto show you can look at a set of flowers, smile, and say “oh yeah, now I know why those are there” and then immediately bee line it to the nearest Ford GT.